Tag: Medical Training

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the median four-year cost to attend med school is close to a quarter of a million dollars.

And while a growing doctor shortage is keeping med school attractive despite the high cost and long years of training, there are many healthcare jobs that approach some physician salaries, without the extra years (and debt) associated with becoming a doctor.

Online lists stating the average pay for nurses nationwide can vary wildly and often suggest that huge rises or drop have occurred, but what’s the final word on how (and what) nurses actually get paid under various circumstances? We take a look at the most up-to-date numbers and what the statistics can – and can’t – tell us.

According to labor statistics, some nurses can make north of $100,000 a year. Meanwhile, according to the documentary “The Vanishing Oath,” a full-time physician in the U.S. can take home as little as $28/hr before taxes.

These are two extremes, but it brings up an interesting topic I’ve been thinking about for a while now: How much does the pay you get out of a medical job actually give you?

We often hear of 60, 70, even 80-hour work-weeks debasing the currency of some medical salaries, while overall satisfaction for other healthcare jobs is among the highest in any industry…So what does it all work out to when it comes to the quality-of-life your job lets you have?

To find out, I did some basic math with the most recent available salary, hourly pay, average weekly hours worked, and overtime data, as well as average time needed to complete training, job satisfaction, and other elements from a variety of sources.

You could argue that the medical profession is by far the most eventful major employment sector, with an unrelenting stream of patients, thousands of variables to every procedure, and the high-adrenaline rush of urgent situations like time-sensitive surgeries and the emergency room.

So it’s no surprise that in most hospitals (and many clinics), there’s little time for contemplation, reflection, or thoughtfulness.

For that reason, maybe it’s even more important to take a minute to come up with a game plan for some key things to say to your co-workers to help improve your performance and theirs:

Who would have thought that a $60 piece of software on a $250 piece of hardware would become a critical training tool for laparoscopic surgeons?

While you could argue this statement isn’t universally accepted (yet), a 2007 study into the relevance of video games as a training tool for traditional, laparoscopic, and robot-assisted surgery bears-out what anyone who became a physician during or after the advent of Pong, Space Invaders or Pacman already knew… Continue reading “Top 8 Video Games for Training Surgeons”